longtimefan wrote:GMJR back in July: "We'll get our third line center. We've got time." Something to that effect.......

I don't think he thought Brassard might be available in his wildest dreams. Who would have thought the Sens could fall this far? And to go out and get Duchene, who I simply can't see re-signing with Ottawa, and still fail?

And the funny thing is...for what I think this team needs, it's for the absolute best that we lost out on Duchene and got Brassard. We need playoff warriors/team guys, not a guy like Duchene. I'm thrilled at how this saga played out.

I'm not counting on this trade yet. Something is fishy that its still not official. I get that it's "complicated" and may involve another team, but a little concerning that it's taking this long to become official.

I may be a pessimist, but I don't think this deal gets done now. Someone's gonna back out. Hope I'm wrong.

Vegas trades a 5th to Ottawa for Brassard with cap retained. We trade a 1st and Gustavsson for that 5th rounder. We then trade the same 5th rounder and Cole for Brassard with salary retained. Should all fine under the rules.

longtimefan wrote:GMJR back in July: "We'll get our third line center. We've got time." Something to that effect.......

I don't think he thought Brassard might be available in his wildest dreams. Who would have thought the Sens could fall this far? And to go out and get Duchene, who I simply can't see re-signing with Ottawa, and still fail?

And the funny thing is...for what I think this team needs, it's for the absolute best that we lost out on Duchene and got Brassard. We need playoff warriors/team guys, not a guy like Duchene. I'm thrilled at how this saga played out.

I'm not counting on this trade yet. Something is fishy that its still not official. I get that it's "complicated" and may involve another team, but a little concerning that it's taking this long to become official.

I may be a pessimist, but I don't think this deal gets done now. Someone's gonna back out. Hope I'm wrong.

Pierre LeBrun‏Verified account

@PierreVLeBrun 6m6 minutes agoMoreSource involved in the deal says he's confident the deal will still get done...

DelPen wrote:Vegas trades a 5th to Ottawa for Brassard with cap retained. We trade a 1st and Gustavsson for that 5th rounder. We then trade the same 5th rounder and Cole for Brassard with salary retained. Should all fine under the rules.

There’s a catch, but it seems temporary: The trade might have to be funneled through a third team, per TSN’s Bob McKenzie, because of the complications involving money. That third team, he reported, likely will be the Golden Knights. The NHL rejected the initial trade, per Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos, and wants to see it restructured to assure that there’s no circumventing of the salary cap.

What is Murphy's track record? The little I saw on a brief search yielded no rumors that turned into real action. Again, I don't know the guy and didn't do an exhaustive search so anyone that knows the guy - is he good?

The issue according to the league: Vegas can’t technically retain any of Brassard’s salary due to the fact that Brassard has never been a member of the Vegas organization. Makes sense on the surface, right?

What is a “reserve list” anyways? CapFriendly provides this definition:

An NHL team’s reserve list is comprised of any player who’s signing rights they hold. This includes unsigned draft choices, all players signed to a Standard Player Contract (SPC), and all players signed to an SPC while playing in a junior league.

Each club can have a maximum of 90 players on their reserve list.

We’ll see how the hurdle is overcome, but seemingly Brassard may have to be traded to Vegas for a day to make it onto their reserve list, then in theory it would be allowable for VGK to retain salary and send Brassard to his final destination of Pittsburgh.

With many industry observers believing this will be salvaged and the deal will go through as initially reported, there’s not much reason to panic for Pens fans. It will take a little more work by the parties to go through the dog and pony show that the NHL wants to see, but at the end of the day when it comes to complicated and tricky trades the saying “where there is a will, there is a way”. The teams seem to all be in agreement about the trade, now they simply just have to jump a few more hurdles to get all the books in line.